Page 37 of Golden Darkness
He made a sound that vibrated through her. It was the only one he made when he had just drunk and feeling mellow. Part rumble and part hum. It wasn’t quite purring, but it wasn’t far off.
“I took a lot. You rest. I will start fine-tuning the contract. Prepare to be a very wealthy woman.” He kissed her nose.
“If I am with you, where will I spend it?”
“Perhaps on items for our offspring, but I will probably buy that, too.” He chuckled and got up. “Think of something you want for yourself that is not readily available.”
She rolled to her belly. “Underwear?”
He snorted. “Good luck with that.” The claw from one of his wings caressed her butt.
“Metalplated nails to scratch your back?” She smiled.
He paused. “You would do that?”
“Sure. It is something you really like, so why not?”
He paused, got a sheepish smile, and then headed across the room for his tablet. He extended his claw to type on it and settled at his desk to work.
Janessa found it interesting for a while, and then she was out.
Chapter Eight
She sat with him in the dining hall, eating and asking him questions about the contract. She didn’t believe what she was reading. “A hundred years?”
“After that, we will renegotiate, or we are a couple, and there is no need to.”
“Uh, how long do you expect me to live?”
He grinned. “As long as you wish to with my nanites, keeping you as lovely as you are now.”
“How can they know the difference between me and a child I am carrying?”
“The same way your hair grows, your nails grow. They are programmed to know the difference between our blended genes and your body.” His hand was in its favourite spot on her abdomen.
They were murmuring to each other when the Terrans came in. They went through the line and got a table with their handler, who looked a little resigned.
She continued to eat her dozen tiny stir-frys, and Janessa felt the gazes on her.
She looked up, and half of the table of Terrans was staring at her. She continued to eat, and her food got their attention. They pointed and murmured, and eventually, one of them got up and came over, bowing slightly. “Overlord.”
She shrugged and kept eating.
He looked to Kethen. “Why is the other Terran getting different food than we are?”
Kethen murmured, “Pet?”
“My food looks better than theirs does.” Her muscles were tensing and getting ready to act.
When the male reached for her food, she sprang from Kethen’s lap and beat the other Terran to the floor.
Some of his friends got up and charged toward her. One she picked up and suplexed, another got a broken knee, and then she was just lost in the fury of action.
Kethen wrapped an arm around her and flipped her easily to his shoulder. He walked out of the dining hall with the Kethic grinning and the Terrans staring in horror. He summoned medical as they walked and patted Janessa’s butt. “Now, Pet, what got into you.”
“They used to steal my food if it was too close to the force screen. I am not putting up with it now.” She grimaced as he carried her back to their quarters.
He laughed. “I will send them clippings of the tank and what happened on the fourth day.”